"If you asked me five or six years ago if I would ever play defense, I probably would have laughed in your face." Staff Sergeant Matthew Vasquez isn't laughing now — he's starting at outside back for the All-Army Men's Soccer Team, and he wants a gold medal.
Vasquez, 29, serves with the 6th Battalion, 56th Air Defense Artillery Regiment at Fort Hood and has been playing soccer for nearly three decades — from Houston backyards through college at LSU Alexandria, then professionally in Guatemala and the Netherlands before military service rerouted his career. He's now in his third year with the All-Army program, having been nudged toward tryouts by coaches at both Fort Bragg and Fort Hood.
Three sessions a day, seven days a week
The training load is not subtle. Morning, midday, and evening sessions, Monday through Sunday, with recovery — massage, cupping, cryotherapy, yoga, swimming — filling whatever time is left. "Those three sessions a day, Monday through Sunday, really get your body exhausted," Vasquez said.
His teammate, Specialist Heriberto Hernandez, 32, is the goalkeeper in this setup. A Motor Transport Operator with the 115th Brigade Support Battalion, Hernandez has been in the Army soccer ecosystem long enough to follow his coach from Joint Base Lewis-McChord all the way to the All-Army roster. "We don't have much recovery time, but in a way it's good," he said. "It helps us build our stamina."
Age is the honest variable here. Vasquez acknowledges that several of his teammates are 19 or 20 — players in peak physical condition with no recovery debt yet. At 29, heading toward 30, he does more maintenance work just to keep pace. Hernandez at 32 understands that the competitive window at this level has a defined edge.
Last year's loss to the Air Force is the fuel
The Army dropped the gold medal match to the Air Force last year. Both Vasquez and Hernandez are direct about what that means for this cycle. "We definitely want to bring the gold medal back to the Army," Vasquez said. Hernandez was blunter: "We're definitely gonna do damage and hopefully bring the gold."
Vasquez, who re-enlisted for six more years after his initial six, is heading to recruitment training at Fort Knox after this camp. This tournament window is narrow. He's using it.
"Every player on the roster has a vital role," he said. "This is a year that I can definitely see us taking it."
